On opening, the 2022 Chardonnay was flinty and spicy and layered with loads of funk and curry leaf. Good! After this has had some time to settle in the glass, the fruit emerges and speaks of roasted pineapple, pine nuts, yellow peach, apple skins and sandalwood. In the mouth, the acid is tight as a drum, despite the fruit being very open weave and available. 2022 was a hot year in Western Australia, the summer was peppered with extended heat spikes (up in Perth, we had a spell of 13 days over 40 degrees centigrade, followed by two shorter, but no less fierce, stints under the sun) and a distinct lack of rain. The wines are powerfully fruited and soft of acid (not unlike the Chardonnays of the 2014 vintage in this region), although the acidity here is tangy. At 12.4% alcohol, the assumption is that the fruit was picked on the earlier side in order to preserve freshness and acidic structure. The effect is a wine of both energy and girth. Sealed under screw cap.